Posted on 05/22/2004 4:40:14 PM PDT by wagglebee
ASHINGTON, May 22 — International inspectors have discovered evidence that North Korea secretly provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium in early 2001, which if confirmed would be the first known case in which the North Korean government has sold a key ingredient for manufacturing atomic weapons to another country, according to American officials and European diplomats familiar with the intelligence.
A giant cask of uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans earlier this year as part of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's agreement to give up his nuclear program, and the Americans identified Pakistan as the likely source.
But in recent weeks the International Atomic Energy Agency has found strong evidence that the uranium came from North Korea, basing its conclusion on interviews of members of the secret nuclear supplier network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory. Two years ago, the United States charged that North Korea was working to build its own uranium-based nuclear weapons, which would require the same raw materials.
The uranium shipped to Libya could not be used as nuclear fuel unless it was enriched in centrifuges, which the Libyans were constructing as part of a $100 million program to purchase equipment from the Khan network.
If enriched, the fuel Libya obtained could produce a single nuclear weapon, experts say. But the Libyan discovery suggests that North Korea may be capable of producing far larger quantities, especially because the country maintains huge mines that the Federation of American Scientists has described as "four million tons of exploitable high-quality uranium."
At a moment when the Bush administration is focused on Iraq, the fresh intelligence on North Korea poses another challenge to the United States.
The classified evidence — many details of which are still sketchy — has touched off a race among the world's intelligence services to explore whether North Korea has made similar clandestine sales to other nations or perhaps even to terror groups seeking atomic weapons.
"The North Koreans have been selling missiles for years to many countries," one senior Bush administration official said recently, referring to the country's well-known sales to Iran, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and other nations. "Now, we have to look at their trading network in a very different context, to see if something much worse was happening as well."
Iran has bought centrifuges from the Khan network, investigators believe, but it has denied it is seeking a nuclear weapon.
Last year Bush administration officials were warning that North Korea could make good on its threats to provide nuclear materials or weapons. But until just a few weeks ago, American officials said they had no evidence that the country was selling much beyond the missiles and missile technology that have long been among its chief exports.
Now, only weeks after Vice President Dick Cheney declared that "time is not on our side" in the North Korean nuclear crisis, the International Atomic Energy Agency's discovery suggests that North Korea has done just what many experts have warned: It has turned into a supplier of nuclear technology.
While reluctant to discuss the details, American officials describe the discovery of the North Korean connection as an intelligence success that came indirectly from Libya's decision to dismantle its nuclear program, and the ensuing drive to break up Dr. Khan's network. President Bush has said several times that Libya made its decision after it witnessed the American invasion of Iraq, an argument the Libyans reject.
The sources the agency has developed into the Khan network are considered reliable, a European diplomat familiar with the intelligence said, but the experience of false and deliberately misleading reports about Iraq's weapons programs has made both the international agency and the United States more cautious. The agency hopes to confirm the finding with the North Koreans, but since I.A.E.A. inspectors were evicted on Dec. 31, 2002, there has been virtually no contact with the North Korean government.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Loftus reported this months ago.
Maybe if we give the N Koreans more food and economic aid, and help them build new nuclear facilities, they will stop selling their uranium to terrorist nations.
Hell, if the poodle wins in November, we will probably just surrender.
We need to hit em now, while we've got the muscle...
Loftus reported last night that another country's scientest was helping Libya,guess who?
It's too close to call, but my current feeling is Syria-Conventional...K. Korea-NUKE 'em!
FWIW, Hal Lindsey reported the Syrian bodies transported from the train by MOPP suited rescuers/coronors,..were several days later also transported in their coffins to an air transport ,....and those coffin bearers were also MOPP suited,....go figure.
Not very good news.
Heh-heh!
Thanks, I've been keeping up with the info that is coming from that front...
I was referring to the US method for dealing with these morons, not what they have.
It's a known fact that Syria cherry-picked what it wanted from the materials that Saddam smuggled out before the war...the rest is in the Bekka Valley....soon to be the Bekka PLAIN!
More confirmation that N. Korea is truly the nucleus of Axis of Evil.
password and ID on this article
password and ID on this article
Will not waste my time registering for the Slimes web site, but I noticed in the excerpted portion there was no mention of the great peacemaker Jimuh Carter, and his role in making the world a better place by givng the nukes to N Korea. High treason, that's what he is guilty of! Prosocute to the fullest extent of the law in a just US Court, and give him the maximum penalty if found guilty!
Thank you Jimmy Carter and Bubba.
Here's a Fox link to the story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120691,00.html
I caught John Loftus on FoxNews today, 5/21/05, and here is a summary of what he said.
Here is how the nuclear bomb making network divided the tasks up ...
N. Korea --- the nuke material
Pakistan --- via Kahn network the centrifuges and other machines
Libya --- the hollowed out mountain facilities
Iraq --- the money and the nuclear scientists
Loftus said the British had wire intercepts from N. Korea that said if we went into Iraq we would find it all out and the countries involved would be in big trouble.
Loftus said we were developing a nuclear bunker buster bomb to try and take out the mountain facility in Libya.
Loftus summed up by saying the network would have produced a single 'Islamic' nuclear bomb by now, which would then be used to blackmail the west.
Note how no one in the partisan media is connecting the dots back to Iraq. But it is curious that Libya coughed up soon after Baghdad fell.
Talk about DOTS.
more links ...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-North-Korea.html
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-korea-libya-report.html
I wonder when Bush is going to drop this on the dims head?
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